Pastor Saeed Abedini suffers in Iranian prison as Obama pats himself on the back

The press conferences and talking heads are still analyzing the Iranian nuke deal, yet American Pastor Saeed Abedini is left suffering in prison with several other Americans. Betrayed by the President’s promises to help free her husband, Naghmeh Abedini appeals to Congress for help.

“With the announcement of a deal and yet silence as to the fate of Saeed and the other Americans held hostage in Iran, their fate lies now in the hands of Congress,” she said in a statement, pleading with Congress to keep the detained Americans in mind as it reviews the deal.

“My children have desperately missed the loving embrace of their father for the last three years of their lives. They have grown up almost half of their lives without their father,” she said. “Please help us ensure the remainder of their childhood includes both a mother and a father.”

Former Marine, Amir Hekmati, is also jailed in Iran and the Hekmati’s family also released a statement after the nuclear deal was announced.

“Amir is an innocent man who traveled to Iran to visit family, yet there is no denying that his imprisonment has been prolonged pending an outcome in these negotiations,” the statement said. “While Amir himself has said that he should not be part of any nuclear deal, his immediate release would demonstrate a strong gesture of good faith to the international community.”

Christine Levinson implored the United States and Iran to keep working together — “with the same sense of urgency” they applied to reaching a nuclear deal — to free her husband, Bob, a former FBI agent who vanished in Iran in 2007.

“Bob has been held against his will for eight years,” she said. “This nightmare must end.”

Their son, David, said the family desperately wants his father home.

“What we believe is that this deal is not the end of discussions between the Iranian government and the United States government, but merely the beginning,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday.

Just to pour salt in the wound, the Obama administration worked to secure the release of several Iranians detained in the United States and the United Kingdom, some convicted of illegal arms smuggling, according to a report.

The Wall Street Journalreported on Sunday that, as part of a “wish list” Iran presented to the United States in 2009 before the current nuclear negotiations, U.S. officials helped expedite the release of four Iranian prisoners in 2012 and 2013. Three were convicted of illegally sending arms or other banned materials to Iran while the international community sought to enforce sanctions on the country’s nuclear program.